Canada’s online legal magazine.

Summaries Sunday: Supreme Advocacy

One Sunday each month we bring you a summary from Supreme Advocacy LLP of recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers a weekly electronic newsletter, Supreme Advocacy Letter, to which you may subscribe. It’s a summary of all Appeals, Oral Judgments and Leaves to Appeal granted from April 18 – June 25, 2026 inclusive.

Appeal

Civil Litigation/Elections: Collateral Attack; Abuse of Process; Parliamentary Privilege; Immunity
Resler v. Anglin2024 ABCA 1132026 SCC 23 (41298)

Can an unsuccessful election candidate bring a civil claim against an elections officer for the tort of . . . [more]

Posted in: Summaries Sunday

Summaries Sunday: SOQUIJ

Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the Québec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec.

PÉNAL (DROIT) : Un examen inégal des témoignages de l’appelant et de la victime d’agression sexuelle allant au-delà de la méthodologie est démontré; l’analyse de la crédibilité de l’appelant a mené à un renversement du fardeau de la preuve, et la Cour d’appel ordonne la tenue d’un nouveau procès.

Intitulé . . . [more]

Posted in: Summaries Sunday

Summaries Sunday: Supreme One-Liners

As a supplement to our Sunday Summary each month, Supreme Advocacy LLP in Ottawa presents Supreme One-Liners, a super-short descriptive guide to the most recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers its more comprehensive weekly electronic newsletter, Supreme Advocacy Letter, summarizing all Appeals, Oral Judgments and Leaves to Appeal granted.

Leave to Appeal Granted

Bankruptcy: Contempt
Lymer v. Jonsson, 2025 ABCA 423 (42227)

Civil contempt issues in bankruptcy.

Civil Litigation: Contempt; Charter s. 11 (c)
Estate of Craig Sutherland, et al. v. Murphy, 2025 ONCA 227 (41818)

Civil contempt issues in injunctions and . . . [more]

Posted in: Summaries Sunday

The Dangers of Catastrophizing in Client Communications

Through my own journey with chronic pain, I am acutely aware of the impact language can have on your health. More specifically, I recognize the role catastrophizing plays in magnifying pain and that simple word substitutions can facilitate healing. It has also triggered a recognition that the language I use with clients may also negatively contribute to their anxiety.

Catastrophizing involves exaggerating the severity of a situation and jumping to the worst possible conclusion. As noted in the recent Psychology Today article, “Catastrophizing”:

Everyone has negative thoughts. But for many people, negative thinking can spin out of control and be

. . . [more]
Posted in: Legal Information, Practice of Law

Book Review: Equal and Inalienable Rights: Essays on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Several times each month, we are pleased to republish a recent book review from the Canadian Law Library Review (CLLR). CLLR is the official journal of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL/ACBD), and its reviews cover both practice-oriented and academic publications related to the law.

Equal and Inalienable Rights: Essays on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Edited by Melanie R. Bueckert & Derek B.M. Ross. Toronto: LexisNexis, 2024. xlii, 458 p. ISBN 9780433533801 (softcover) $145.00.

Reviewed by Emily Da Silva
Head, Research Support (Education, Law, Management, and Social Sciences)
University of Ottawa Library

This . . . [more]

Posted in: Book Reviews, Thursday Thinkpiece

Wednesday: What’s Hot on CanLII? – June 2026

Each month, we tell you which five English-language cases and French-language cases have been the most viewed* on CanLII in the previous month and we give you a small sense of what the cases are about using summaries sourced from the case text, CanLII-published AI-generated summaries of the case, or anonymized excerpts from the case text.

For this past month, the five most-consulted English-language decisions were:

1. Mazaheri v Law Society of Ontario, 2026 ONLSTH 112

Summary from case:

MAZAHERI – Costs – Negligent and Irresponsible Use of Artificial Intelligence – The Lawyer brought a motion to cancel or . . . [more]

Posted in: Wednesday: What's Hot on CanLII

The Wellness Lawyer: “How Are You?”

How many times have you asked someone , “ how are you?”

Similarly, how many times have you been asked the same question?

If we think about this, the question becomes very mundane and actually quite meaningless.

“How are you?” has become a customary greeting, wherein we don’t expect to receive or give a response that is more than “I am okay.

Recently, after being asked by a friend “how are you?” I realized in mid answer, that this person was not even listening to what I was saying.

I am certain that many of you have found yourselves in . . . [more]

Posted in: Practice of Law

The Law Firm Inflection Point

The troika of artificial intelligence, pricing, and talent transience has been with us for some time now. As a result, traditional pyramid-structured law firms grappling with these bet-the-business juggernauts are at an inflection point. I propose a flatter way forward.

I have been writing and talking about this issue for many years, most recently as part of my ‘The Law Firm’ series: Pyramid Rollover, Private Equity Puzzle, Disappearing Act, Foundational Rebuild, and now this one, Inflection Point.

My argument throughout this series is that traditional law firm pyramid structures will not hold against AI, pricing, and . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Marketing

Monday’s Mix

Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada’s award­-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from more than 80 recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible.

This week the randomly selected blogs are 1. BC Estate Litigation Blog 2. Administrative Law Matters 3. Equilawbrium 4. Civil Resolution Tribunal blog 5. Labour Pains

BC Estate Litigation Blog
What I’m Reading: Interesting Estate Articles for May 2026

The following is a round-up of noteworthy articles published this month on estate litigation issues: Eric . . . [more]

Posted in: Monday’s Mix

Beyond Fake Cases: The Other Ways AI Is Going Wrong in Canadian Courts

Earlier this year, a motion at the Ontario Superior Court paused while everyone in the room went looking for a quotation. The factum on one side quoted a decision of the Court of Appeal, and opposing counsel could not find the quoted words anywhere in that decision. He suspected the factum had been drafted with AI. The judge called a short recess, so the party who filed it could go and find the passage.[1]

The citation was correct, and anyone who looked it up would have found exactly the case named. In this instance, AI produced a fake quotation . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Information, Legal Technology

Summaries Sunday: SOQUIJ

Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the Québec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec.

PÉNAL (DROIT) : Serge Audette est reconnu coupable de l’homicide involontaire d’une jeune femme qui a disparu 30 ans plus tôt et dont le corps n’a jamais été trouvé.

Intitulé : R. c. Audette, 2026 QCCQ 2478 *
Juridiction : Cour du Québec, Chambre criminelle et pénale (C.Q.), Montréal
Décision . . . [more]

Posted in: Summaries Sunday

Summaries Sunday: Supreme One-Liners

As a supplement to our Sunday Summary each month, Supreme Advocacy LLP in Ottawa presents Supreme One-Liners, a super-short descriptive guide to the most recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers its more comprehensive weekly electronic newsletter, Supreme Advocacy Letter, summarizing all Appeals, Oral Judgments and Leaves to Appeal granted.

Appeal

Criminal Law: Police Misconduct Disclosure
Edmonton (Police Service) v. McKee, 2026 SCC 24 (41110)

Multiple disclosure issues re prior police misconduct.

Leave to Appeal Granted

Torts: Future Care Needs; Deductibility of Provincial Payments
H.D v. British Columbia (Ministry of Children and Family Development), . . . [more]

Posted in: Summaries Sunday

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This project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada | Ce projet a été rendu possible en partie grâce au gouvernement du Canada